Earl Albert Moore was plagued by money problems when he fumbled two crimes and landed in federal prison for more than six years, according to court records, interviews and news accounts.

Moore, 65, is suspected of planting a crude explosive device inside a Jefferson County mall last week and is now the subject of a nationwide manhunt.

The failed attempted bombing at Southwest Plaza occurred one week after Moore was released from federal prison, and about four miles from the Denver apartment where he lived for several years before his 2005 arrest for bank robbery.

Authorities have searched all of Moore’s former addresses in Colorado and have spoken with distant relatives, but officials have no confirmed sightings since Moore was seen at the mall Wednesday, FBI spokesman Dave Joly said Monday.

Denver County court records show that the owners of The Pines apartments, near West Quincy Avenue and South Sheridan Boulevard, filed to evict Moore and a female relative in October 2004 for failure to pay rent. Moore had lived in the apartment for about four years, according to public record searches.

Two banks also had filed civil actions against Moore, saying he owed them more than $10,000.

In March 2004, Moore was arrested for theft and possession of burglary tools after a Costco security guard saw him slitting open boxes and shoving merchandise in his coat.

According to police reports, when an officer arrived at the store on South Havana Street, he found 24 computer memory cards worth $1,560 inside the lining of Moore’s coat.

Moore, who was carrying a small knife, told the officer, “I did it. I got caught,” according to the reports.

That summer, Moore agreed to a plea deal in which he would receive two years of probation. But he failed to show up for his September 2004 sentencing.

A warrant was still out for his arrest when in March 2005 he walked into a bank in Crab Orchard, W.Va., waved a gun and fled with $2,546, according to court records.

Police arrested him about 10 minutes later, after Moore walked into a nearby convenience store and a clerk noticed red dye on his hands from the dye packs the bank had included with the money, according to a story from The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.Va.

Moore had used makeup to paint on a fake beard and crashed his getaway car into a snowbank about a half-mile from the bank. Police found the money in the car’s trunk.

A bank employee said Monday that Moore told officers at the time that he needed to rob the bank because his wife was dying of cancer. It was unclear whether that story was ever confirmed, and Raleigh County Sheriff R.S. “Steve” Tanner could not be reached for comment.

Moore was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison. His sentence was reduced to seven years after he assisted prosecutors with information on another case, according to court records. He spent most of that time at a medium-security prison in South Carolina.

He had a previous conviction for larceny in El Paso County in 1998. That case also involved a rental property, court records show.

In 2010, the Colorado Department of Revenue also filed a civil case against Moore, saying he owed the state $2,819.

Joly said investigators Monday were following up leads locally and nationally but were asking anyone with information to call the tip line, 303-271-5615.

Moore is described as bald with blue eyes and between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall. He weighs about 225 pounds and has several tattoos: a viking head on one forearm, a heart and dagger on another, and a roselike flower on an upper arm.

He has used at least seven aliases, including variations of the names Earl Albert Buchanan, Donald Charles Morelli and Gary Steele, according to state arrest records.

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